


Alone

by Luisilly6



Category: Mary Skelter: Nightmares
Genre: Birthday Fluff, F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-05
Updated: 2020-10-05
Packaged: 2021-03-08 04:54:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,440
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26840068
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Luisilly6/pseuds/Luisilly6
Summary: Alice has been trapped in the Jail for as long as she can remember, and every day she and the rest of the Dawn are trying to escape. But even in such despair, little moments of hope can shine through.
Relationships: Jack/Alice (Mary Skelter: Nightmares)
Kudos: 5





	Alone

The day began as any other, with Alice trying to wake herself up and get out of bed. Usually not a difficult task, but expeditions into deeper parts of the Jail were taking their toll on her. Regardless, she knew she had little choice. The further they got into the Jail, the more Cores they destroyed. The more Cores that were destroyed, the further the Jail Tower grew. The better the Dawn’s odds of escaping the Jail. Alice kept this line of thinking up as she stepped into the bathroom and splashed a little bit of water in her face. She wasn’t exactly sure what the limit on clean water was in the Jail, but she decided it was best to play it safe. If all else fails, she can live...a day or two without water. Maybe.

Her train of thought was interrupted as a knock came on her door. It was early for orders to come in, but she had orders come in at more absurd times of the day.   
“Coming!” Alice quickly fixed her hair and put on her pin. She was thankful she had decided to clean her Dawn uniform the night before.

\- - -

“I’m terribly sorry for waking you at this time, but there’s a small matter I require your assistance with.”

Standing before her was Professor Tohjima, the head of the Dawn Liberation Force. While it was typical for orders to come from him, the fact that he came to her room specifically was...suspect. Alice had her doubts about the intentions of the Dawn for a while, but it was mostly speculation and/or paranoia. Nevertheless, she kept her guard up.   
She was a bit too obvious now though, as she heard Tohjima burst into a small chuckle. “Alice, there’s no need for such a face! It’s a small matter really, and I feel your talents will be most applicable here.”

Alice softened her expression at his comment. “I’m sorry, what did you need?”   
“Well, I need you to go into the Jail proper. Do not worry, you will not need to go far. But I require a material, often hoarded by the Marchen within the immediate vicinity of the Liberated District.”

It wasn’t the first time that she was tasked to go out on her own, but...she couldn’t help herself. “Are you sure you need me? Wouldn’t any of the other Blood Maidens suffice?”   
“Ah, err...” Tohjima looked briefly caught off guard before catching himself. “Well, the others are busy with other orders, and you’re the only one with sufficient battle experience while operating alone.” Alice didn’t let her guard down, but she figured if she didn’t have to go far, she should be fine.   
“Very well. Just let me go wake Jack up. We’ll set out shortly- “

“Ah, wait!” She was practically already leaving when Tohjima called out. Once again, his face betrayed his usually composed demeanor. “Jack, er, has left with Red Riding Hood. The two of them and Cinderella were tasked with getting something for me. I assure you; you’ll be fine.”   
Alice’s expression visually hardened at this information. Not just two of the other Blood Maidens, but Jack too were not only up earlier than her, but were already deployed? To say it was suspect would be an understatement. “If you do require assistance, I’m sure the other Blood Maidens would be more than happy to assist you...”   
“No, I’ll be fine.” While she didn’t know where Jack was, Alice figured if he was with Red Riding Hood and Cinderella, he ought to be fine. She focused herself on the task before her.

\- - -

As it would turn out, focus was barely even required. When she heard the material was “hoarded by the Marchen” she figured it was in plentiful supply. That ended up being _very_ far from the truth. Without Jack, she had to pick her battles carefully, which mostly ended up with her waiting in a secluded spot within the Jail for minutes on end until a Marchen with the material she wanted appeared. She would kill it in less than a minute, and then repeat this for...   
Alice glanced at her collection. 4. So she had to repeat this incredibly dull process 6 more times.   
Now, she had completed these kinds of mundane tasks before, mostly on behalf on the Order of the Sun and their various tasks, but this was the first time she had done it by herself. And it was proving to be very boring.

“Why does Professor Tohjima even need this...?”

The material in question was a bunch of ribbons. Mostly in black, but she just got a bright yellow one. That was neat.   
Oh, and a Marchen with a red one just came through, that makes for some nice variety in comparison to all the other-

Alice quickly snapped out of her slight daze and pounced on the passing Marchen.

\- - -

It had taken the better part of the day, but it was done. 10 ribbons, all hers to take. She was ready to go home, collapse in bed, and then forget today happened. It wasn’t even so much that it was hard, but it was boring. Admittedly, it was a welcome change from the chaos that ended up being born from the deep Jail expeditions, but she didn’t want to do this more than once.  
But when she got to the entrance to the Liberated District, she was surprised by another task being thrust into her face. The guard on duty, Towa Kadowaki, seemed shocked to see her back, and stopped her at the entrance to the District as he urgently whispered into his communication device. Ordinarily, such a thing would be rather annoying, but she had literally just waited in one place all day for God knows how long, she could wait a few more minutes.  
Eventually, Kadowaki came back from his conversation, and began talking. “I’m sorry to hold you up, but Tohjima needs you to pick up something in the shopping district before you return to Dawn HQ.”

Another order? Before she had even...  
“Fine. What am I getting?”

\- - -

The oh-so important item that she was directed to get was...chocolate.   
Now, she was aware that sugar was an exceedingly rare commodity in the Jail, chocolate even more so. And she was also aware that there was a... Alice hesitated to call them a baker, but it was applicable in this case.  
However, what she did not know was why Tohjima was so confident that this baker would have chocolate, and why he thought it would not cost any less than a literal arm and leg. And yet, against all odds, there was some. And it was just...given to her. Alice struggled to wrap her head around this, but she decided to not look a gift horse in the mouth and returned to Dawn with the ribbons and chocolate in hand.

As she neared the HQ, Alice unconsciously found herself softening. Her heart skipped a beat, and she suddenly felt lighter on her feet. All of that at a single sight.

“Jack! You’re back?”

Just as Professor Tohjima described, Jack seemed to be returning from something, with Red Riding Hood and Cinderella in tow. However, their reactions to seeing her were...unexpected to say the least.

“A-Alice?!”  
“Oh crap!”   
“Uh, wait, how is she-?!”

All three of her friends seemed surprised to see her back. Before she had a chance to question the responses or even say “hi” to the other Blood Maidens, they quickly formed a circle and started speaking in urgent whispers.

“Jack, I thought you said it would take her forever to get the ribbons!”   
“I-I thought it would! It always took us forever whenever we...”   
“Ugh, this was your idea, come up with something!”

On second thought, maybe “whispers” was inaccurate. It was more like very soft yelling.

When they finally finished their little group huddle, they went over to Alice and greeted her, as if they weren’t just panicking at her very existence. “Thank you for getting the ribbons and chocolate Alice, I’m really sorry they put you through it. You did it really quickly too!”  
Alice would normally take such praise with a grain of salt, especially given it still took an unfortunate amount of time.   
But not from Jack.

“Oh, uh, I tried my best to get these on time. T-thank you, Jack.”   
“So I’m sorry to ask, but could you get something for me?”

\- - -

She was really starting to get irritated at all the errands she was being put through.  
Normally, anything Jack asked of her would be done without hesitation or regret, and she still felt that first part. Not the second though, her feet were starting to hurt from all the walking she was doing. Alice would’ve been fine just ignoring the pain, but the request itself was arguably even stranger than the last two. Jack wanted her to go to the entire other side of the Liberated District. And for what, exactly?

To pick up a glove.  
 _A right-handed glove._

She sincerely hoped Jack didn’t think she was stupid, because the entire task smelt of an effort to waste her time. Of course, she was sure there was a logical explanation to it, but for the life of her, she just could not see it. Surely though, once she got this out of the way, she could go back to her room, relax for a spell, then eat dinner and go to bed.  
Clearly though, Alice had not learned a single thing from her expeditions today. When she got back home, she received an urgent task from Thumbelina of all people to grab something for her. When she finished that, Kaguya actually got out of her room for once to ask her for something. Her entire day was spent on frivolous chores and what often felt like meaningless tasks. By the end of it all, she was thoroughly exhausted, and had wanted nothing more than a shower and sleep. As she made her way throughout the empty halls of the HQ, she...she...

Empty?

Of all things for her tired mind to grasp onto, that was perhaps the strangest of all. It should’ve been close to dinner time, right? Then where was everyone? She saw hide nor hair of any of the Dawn’s staff on the way to her room. And now that she thought about it, she didn’t hear the other Blood Maidens in their rooms either. Normally, at least Red Riding Hood or Rapunzel would be making an absolute mess right about now, but all that greeted the black-haired girl was dead silence. It was rather uncharacteristic of the entire building.   
But perhaps strangest of all was when she got to her room. It was slightly ajar, cracked open even though she was sure she locked it when she left in the morning. Despite everything she had been subjected to today, she was not about to get caught off-guard in her own room. She readied a small blade she kept with her and cautiously stepped into the room smelling of freshly baked goods.

...freshly baked? Why on earth would her room smell like-

In that moment of distraction, it happened. The lights suddenly switched on and the door shut behind her. Several loud pops rang through the air as a large amount of colorful confetti was dropped on her head.

“SURPRISE!”

Alice was momentarily stunned at the events happening before her. All the other Blood Maidens, Jack, Tohjima, and even Miko and Haru had all gathered in her room, with huge smiles on their faces. At the center of the room was a small decorative table, with a small cake and a bunny plush tied up with a ribbon lying on it. Before she had a chance to react, Rapunzel ran up and threw herself into Alice, almost toppling her over. “Happy birthday, Alice!”  
For a moment, the words didn’t register in her mind. Birthday? Since when? She didn’t even remember when her birthday was supposed to...

As her brain practically short-circuited, she gazed up to the people who set this entire party up. “B-but...but why?”   
Red Riding Hood spoke this time. “Well, it’s been about a year since we rescued you and Jack, and Jack decided that should be treated kind of like a birthday. So, he wanted to celebrate. Technically, that makes it his birthday too, but...”

She flashed a cheeky grin before she continued. “He insisted.”

At those words, Jack stepped forward, picking up the bunny plushie.  
“Well, the thing is...you’ve always protected me. Even when things got bad and I couldn’t do anything, you kept defending me. I... I look up to you.”   
Alice stood in complete silence as Jack continued. “And yet I can’t do anything to help you out there. Even with the Mary Gun there’s only so much I can do to be useful to you. But I still wanted to show that...I’m grateful for you. And everything you do for me, and us! So, uh...”   
He thrust out the plushie in Alice’s face. “Thank you. Thank you so much Alice!”   
Alice barely processed it all. How could she? Here was one of her closest friends, going through such absurd lengths and setting up this entire surprise...for her.

Because he liked her.

Because she was his friend.

Alice almost felt herself move without input. Rather than grab onto the plushie, she grabbed onto Jack himself and pulled him into a hug.   
“U-uh, Alice?!”   
“...thank you. Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU!”

Alice could barely stop herself now. Words turned into incomprehensible noises and tears began flowing down her face. “Thank you, I-I... I can’t....I...”

The other watching the scene could only smile as Jack tried to comfort his now crying friend. But Alice didn’t care. She didn’t want to care. Right now, there was nothing else but her and Jack. She didn’t need anything else. As the tears continued to flow, and the night went on celebrating her birthday, a thought struck her mind. The entire day, she had felt by herself. Being forced to run task after task was maddening, but also lonely. It was hardly an emotion she was unacquainted with, but she had just taken it as another thing she had to get used to. Besides Jack, she had to learn how to do deal with isolation, especially during those torturous days spent in captivity.

Now she realized she didn’t have to learn how to. Because she wasn’t alone. She never had to be, not now or ever again.


End file.
